14 Famous Men Who Battled Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer (after skin) among men in the United States. The American Cancer Society estimates that one in six will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime, which amounts to approximately 240,890 new cases every year. Fortunately, the disease is very treatable if found early: It has a nearly 100 percent five-year survival rate in the first two stages. Currently, some 2 million U.S. men in the count themselves as prostate cancer survivors — including more than a few household names like Robert De Niro, Arnold Palmer, and Joe Torre. Read on for stories about how they and others dealt with prostate cancer in the public eye.

Jerry Brown

California Governor Jerry Brown has announced that he is
being treated for prostate cancer. Brown,
74, did not say when he was diagnosed, but said
his prognosis was
good because the cancer was caught early. The 34th and 39th
governor of California, Brown will continue working while undergoing radiation
therapy over the next month. He is no
stranger to cancer: In 2011, he had surgery
to remove a cancerous growth in his nose.

Photo
Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo

CREDIT: Dan Jackman/WENN.com

Ian McKellen

British actor Sir Ian McKellen (known to many Americans as Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings triology and Magneto from X-Men) recently told the UK's Mirror that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2005 or 2006. So far, he's been able to live healthfully with the disease.

McKellen explained that his slow-growing kind of prostate cancer has not spread to other parts of his body. "Many, many men die from it but it's one of the cancers that is totally treatable so I have 'waitful watching'. I am examined regularly, and it's just contained, it's not spreading. I've not had any treatment," he told the paper.

Ivan Nikolov/WENN.com

Robert De Niro

Not even prostate cancer could slow down Academy Award winner Robert De Niro. Known for “tough guy” roles in films including Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, the actor proved he had mettle offscreen, too, when was diagnosed with prostate cancer at the age of 60. Fortunately for him — and his family, friends, and fans — “the condition was detected at an early stage because of regular checkups, a result of his proactive personal healthcare program,” his publicist said in a statement. Few details were released about the star’s treatment, but he went on to make a full recovery and, in 2011, at 68, became a father for the sixth time, to a daughter, Helen Grace Hightower, born via surrogate to him and his wife, Grace Hightower.

Ivan Nikolov/WENN.com

Colin Powell

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, also a retired four-star general in the United States Army, underwent surgery to remove a cancerous prostate gland in 2003 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Since then, he has become a vocal supporter of prostate cancer awareness and devoted his time to the Prostate Conditions Education Council, which sponsors Prostate Cancer Awareness Week every September. Last year, on his birthday, he posted this message to fans on Facebook: “Today was my 73rd birthday and the most valuable gift I received was all the well-wishes from so many of you. Thank you. As one of you noted, I am a prostate cancer survivor and a spokesman for prevention. Men should have regular prostate examinations…. Regular exams allowed me to deal with this problem early and make a full recovery.”

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Roger Moore

Sir Roger Moore, a self-proclaimed hypochondriac and the longest-serving James Bond actor in history — he played the secret agent for 12 years, beginning with 1973’s Live and Let Die and ending with 1985’s A View to Kill — faced one of his worst fears come true when he discovered he had prostate cancer in 1993. He later underwent a radical prostatectomy (a full removal of the prostate gland) and made a full recovery, but the experience changed him forever. Shortly after completing treatment, Moore, now 84, left his third wife, Luisa Mattioli, for Kristina Tholstrup, a former neighbor who had survived a similarly life-altering bout with breast cancer a few years before. In 2009, he wrote about the health scare and resulting fallout in his memoir, My Word Is My Bond. “I had plenty of time to think about my life and how close I had been to losing it,” he recalled. “It was not very admirable behaviour I admit, but the seeds for life change had been planted and were beginning to grow.”

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Charlton Heston

Academy Award winner Charlton Heston, known for his roles in movies like Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1998, just a couple of years after he underwent hip-replacement surgery. After a brief but intense course of radiation, the cancer went into remission — but Heston’s health would never be the same. In 2000, after finishing treatment for his cancer, he entered rehab for alcohol addiction, and in 2002, he announced another, even bigger threat to his health: Alzheimer’s disease. Six years later, at the age of 84, he passed away.

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Dennis Hopper

Actor/director Dennis Hopper, who appeared in movies including Easy Rider and Hoosiers, died from prostate cancer in May 2010, less than nine months after being diagnosed. In January of that year, he discovered that the cancer had metastasized to his bones, and by March, he was too weak to continue chemotherapy. Before he died, however, he was immortalized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — a fitting end to a long and fruitful career.

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Joe Torre

Former Yankees manager Joe Torre, 71, has been an outspoken advocate for prostate cancer awareness ever since he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of the disease in 1999. "What scared me initially, in addition to my cancer, was that I didn't have the answers I needed," he said in a 2000 interview for the Johns Hopkins Prostate Bulletin. "It certainly was a very difficult time emotionally. I was a mess, my blood pressure had skyrocketed — all from being scared about the cancer and what I had to do about it." Thankfully, Torre had help by his side — his wife, Ali. "I don't know what I would have done if Ali hadn't been there to get me through it all. It later became very clear to me that you need a spouse or a good friend to be there for you, to keep you on level ground and to give you hope," he told Johns Hopkins. "Otherwise, saddled with the cancer diagnosis, it becomes so easy to think of your cancer as some sort of a dark hole, and that there is no way out for you."

Leon Bennett/WENN.com

Arnold Palmer

Golf legend Arnold Palmer has 62 PGA Tour wins, his own drink (half lemonade, half iced tea), and a place in the World Golf Hall of Fame — but his proudest accomplishment to date is his triumph over prostate cancer. In the years since his 1997 diagnosis and treatment (a radical prostatectomy and radiation), Palmer, 82, has used his celebrity to raise awareness of the disease among other men and to help found the Arnold Palmer Prostate Center, a nonprofit treatment destination at Eisenhower Lucy Curci Cancer Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He’s adamant that all men should get screened. “There’s nothing better than going to the doctor and knowing just exactly where you stand,” he told Everyday Health. “That’s so important for men to do. Don’t think about doing it. Just do it.”

Chris Connor/WENN.com

Rudy Giuliani

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani knew the heartbreak that prostate cancer could cause even before he was diagnosed in April 2000 — his father had died of the disease 19 years earlier. Determined not to meet the same fate, Giuliani, now 67 and healthy, chose a multi-phase treatment plan that consisted of four months of hormone therapy, implantation of radioactive metal pellets in his prostate (to radiate the cancer), and five weeks of almost-daily external-beam radiation with continuing hormone therapy. The plan was aggressive — but successful. It left the politician in both good health and good spirits. “The time that I spent this morning between 8 and 9 was not nearly as painful as most of my morning meetings,” he joked of his treatments during a press conference after the implant surgery. “And there was less fighting.... So this was actually a much quieter and more peaceful morning than I usually have.”

Dominic Chan/WENN.com

Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte — an actor, activist, and singer/songwriter (perhaps best known for “The Banana Boat Song,” with its famous “Day-O” refrain) — added “survivor” to his resume after he fought and beat prostate cancer in 1996. In the years since, Belafonte has been refreshingly candid about his ordeal, even going public about his post-surgery struggles with incontinence, a common side effect that Belafonte said he conquered in less than a year with exercises (such as Kegels). But he wasn’t always so comfortable opening up. “The prostate is something that attacks that central part of the male body that men are very preoccupied with. Somehow, any disorder there means your life is over, you can't be a man anymore, you are now something less,” he explained at a benefit for the Hoag Cancer Center in California, adding that he hoped to change that perception. “If you're going to have [prostate cancer], you're going to have it. It’s what you do about it that makes the difference — how you conduct your life."

Danny Clifford/Hotwire.net/WENN.com

Nelson Mandela

Former South African President Nelson Mandela was diagnosed with prostate cancer at age 83 in July 2001, 16 years after he had prostate surgery to remove some benign tumors. Doctors treated the cancer successfully with seven weeks of radiation and said the tumor should not affect Mandela’s life expectancy. More recently, however, the 92-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has faced various other health crises, including a collapsed lung and difficulty walking.

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Alec Guinness

Academy Award-winning actor Sir Alec Guinness, known to Star Wars fans as Obi-Wan Kenobi, discovered he had inoperable prostate cancer in January 2000, when he was 85 years old. He died later that year, but the cause of his death was determined to be advanced liver cancer, which doctors discovered in July, a month before he passed away.

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James Brown

James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul," lived up to his reputation as the hardest-working man in show business even after he announced in December 2004 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and would undergo surgery later that month. Within a few weeks of his radical prostatectomy, he was back onstage for his "Seven Decades of Funk" world tour. "When they found the cancer, they said it was in the early stages and I thank God for that," Brown said in an interview for Coping With Cancer magazine. "Right now, the word from ol' James Brown is 'I feel good!' I just trust in God and trust in my doctors." Sadly, the music legend died two years later of congestive heart failure.

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